Happy Halloween

Halloween used to be one of my favourite times of the year but then things happened which changed it all. Now I am starting to put some of it behind me and can enjoy Halloween again even if I don't go all out about it any more. I am not going to go into all of it tonight, but I will tell you the story of the straw that broke the camel's back.

I used to go to haunted houses whenever I had the chance and then a few years back I started working at one. I worked two or three nights a week for the duration of the season, the month of October, at least until the owners decided that I wasn't allowed to work there anymore. The reason they gave was that I was too scary.

So I was too scary to work at some place called "The Haunted Mansion" whose whole purpose was to scare people.

Yeah, it made that much sense to me as well.

Now, the part of it which really upset me and turned me off the whole thing wasn't that they decided not to let me work there any more, what pissed me off was that I heard about it when other people who worked there started contacting me and saying "I heard what happened and I'm sorry." To which my reply was "What the hell are you talking about?"

Eventually I was able to piece together the story, no thanks to the owners or operators of the house. I called and emailed them but they would not respond. Nothing. They acknowledged my attempts to friends of mine, but that was it.

Apparently it was one parent who complained and had me removed from the house. She said I scared her daughter too much. Since the owners of the house wouldn't talk to me, let alone listen to my side of things, I am going to tell you what happened.

The girl in question came through and I did my job and tried to scare her. At this point her only reaction was to threaten to "mace" me. She then immediately reached into her purse, pulled out a small spray canister, and sprayed me in the face. Needless to say I was caught off guard and it took a couple of seconds before I realized it wasn't mace, pepper spray, or anything like that. It was perfume.

I don't think I have to say that I was not happy with this girl. So I pulled out the stops, without breaking any of the house rules (I didn't touch, trap, or block her in any way) and gave her a scare. Adding my anger into the mix was enough to actually scare her and while she left the one area, she did not leave the house. I know this because she came back later and mouthed off some more. This got a scowl as a reply but nothing else. I knew that if I did more I would have used language which would have made a gangsta rapper blush. Safer to not say anything. But as it turns out not safe either.

And that was the end of that.

That was three years ago and this weekend was the first time I have been back. I was back there as a customer, and to see friends of mine who still work there. I had seen these friends in the meantime, I work with one of them, but I hadn't seen them in this environment. It is too late for me to go into what happened, but I will say that I enjoyed it. Look for that story in the coming week.

In the meantime I am off to bed and, hopefully, to sleep.

Peace.